Photoredox/Cobalt Cooperative Catalysis for Divergent Selective Isomerization of N-Allylamides.

Enamides are extremely important structural units, which are widely present in natural products and bioactive compounds and play a crucial role in the pharmaceutical field. Although many methods for synthesizing enamides have been developed, the obtained enamides usually suffer from poor selectivity and low yield. Herein, we report a divergent and selective isomerization reaction of N-allylamides under a visible light-driven photoredox cobalt-catalyzed system. This strategy enables the efficient synthesis of various enamides with excellent stereoselectivity. Notably, by simply switching the ligand in the reaction, both E- and Z-isomers can be obtained with high stereoselectivity (E/Z up to >20:1; Z/E up to 5.3:1) and good yields (58-92%) under mild conditions, along with a broad substrate scope and good functional group tolerance.